Author: NCIJ NETWNCIJ NETWORK

A mountainous reserve near Manila, the Philippine capital, is a critical ecological refuge, harboring high levels of plant diversity despite its proximity to the highly urbanized city, according to a recent study. The findings come from surveys done 10 years earlier, however, and mounting pressures on the area’s forests since then may have had an impact, the authors say. As the last remaining natural lowland forest in Cavite province, on the southern shores of Manila Bay, Mounts Palay-palay-Mataas-na-Gulod Protected Landscape serves as a vital stronghold for Philippine biodiversity, researchers say. In July 2016, they surveyed plants within the…

Reporting Highlights Hard Line on Payments: In her two years in the role, Louisiana attorney general Liz Murrill has opposed almost all compensation claims by wrongfully convicted people. Freed After Four Decades: Elvis Brooks’ murder conviction was thrown out after a prosecutor admitted he hid potentially exonerating evidence. Murrill maintains he’s guilty. A Higher Bar: Twenty-three people have sought compensation after judges threw out their convictions. Murrill has asserted that 22 have failed to sufficiently prove their innocence. These highlights were written by the reporters and editors who worked on this story. Elvis Brooks thought he had an airtight case…

Claim: In early August 2026, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said, “The conflict in Iran would be over by now if President Trump had better intelligence.” Rating: In early August 2026, social media users shared an alleged quote attributed to White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt in which she purportedly said the Iran war “would be over by now” if U.S. President Donald Trump “had better intelligence.” For instance, one Facebook post read, “Karoline Leavitt: ‘The conflict in Iran would be over by now if President Trump had better intelligence.'” The purported quote spread on social media platforms including…

Air India has appointed a new chief executive as the airline grapples with mounting challenges, including heavy financial losses and the fallout from last year’s crash that killed 260 people.Tewolde Gebremariam succeeds Campbell Wilson, who stepped down from the role in April.Gebremariam was earlier CEO at Ethiopian Airlines, where he worked for over a decade, growing the regional carrier into one of Africa’s largest airlines.Air India, which Tata Group bought from the Indian government in 2022, has been dealing with a period of operational turbulence.The airline operates a fleet of 198 aircraft, flying nearly 5,000 weekly flights to 91 destinations…

Rupert Lowe, the leader of Restore Britain, refused to say he believes King Charles can be classified as a “white Briton” in an extraordinary interview on the BBC’s Today programme.Questioning Lowe, the MP for Great Yarmouth, over his claims that “white Britons will become a minority by 2063”, the presenter, Nick Robinson, noted that the forecast Lowe referred to defined a “white Briton” as someone whose parents were both born in the UK.With the king’s late father, Prince Philip, having been born on the Greek island of Corfu, Robinson asked Lowe: “Are you aware that, by the definitions used in…

Representative Andy Ogles, Republican of Tennessee, faces a more competitive race than expected in the state’s primary election on Thursday, after a last-minute influx of outside political spending and a surprise endorsement for his rival.Mr. Ogles, a two-term congressman, has President Trump’s endorsement but also carries some political baggage. He has been criticized for inflammatory anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant comments, and investigated for campaign finance issues.Charlie Hatcher, a former state commissioner of agriculture and Mr. Ogles’s primary challenger, was endorsed on Tuesday by Bill Lee, Tennessee’s outgoing Republican governor and a longtime friend.“Charlie has stood with President Trump since Day 1,”…

A 75-inch TV can give you an at-home cinematic experience without feeling like it’s taking over your space. At the top of the list of best 75-inch TVs, you’ll find the names you expect like Samsung, Sony, and LG. Sets from brands like Samsung, Sony, and LG s sport features like object-tracking sound, OLED panels, and even 8K resolution that make any content look amazing. If you need budget-friendly TV models, brands like TCL and Hisense still hold their own. These sets come at a lower price point because they cut some features, but the picture is still very high quality. In our August…

Swati KhandelwalAug 06, 2026Database Security / Endpoint Security Attackers broke into an organization’s Oracle database through a SQL injection flaw in a public-facing web application, then installed a post-exploitation toolkit without writing an executable to disk. They fed Java source code to the database, let Oracle compile it into stored schema objects, and ran commands from inside the database engine. Huntress, which tracks the toolkit as khunt, investigated after credential-theft detections fired on July 27, 2026, and traced the chain to SYSTEM-level code execution on the underlying Windows server. The flaw sat in the application, where an autocomplete search field…

Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a law creating a regulated framework for cryptocurrency markets in Russia.Putin signed bill No. 1194918-8, titled “On Digital Currencies and Digital Rights,” into law on Tuesday, according to official records from the State Duma, Russia’s lower house of parliament. The legislation establishes rules for crypto market participants, including exchanges, brokers, custodians and other crypto service providers.The law requires crypto exchange operators to meet regulatory requirements and join a financial market self-regulatory organization. It limits retail investors to buying approved crypto assets through intermediaries, with an annual cap of 300,000 rubles ($3,700) per intermediary. Qualified…

The coastal dune system in Lençóis Maranhenses National Park in northeastern Brazil is among the most surreal landscapes on Earth. At first glance, the park looks like a desert, but it is far from it. This place receives about 125 centimeters (50 inches) of rain per year—slightly more than Seattle and double what falls in London.  The result is a paradox: rows of sparkling white quartz dunes, some rising 30 meters (100 feet), soar over a mosaic of blue and green freshwater lagoons. The park’s name stems from the Portuguese word lençóis, meaning “bedsheets,” a reference that makes the most…